Unique Dragons

[Alzrius]

Ahi and Rahab:Steel and Grey (uniques at the time) ?

They were (and are) unique dragons, from Dragon #62 IIRC.

Undead Dragon from Greyhawk... Durgorath? Breath weapon that turned those it killed into skeletons serving him...

Dragotha. He was last seen in an official expansion to 2's Return to White Plume Mountain. Download Dragotha's Lair here.

Don't forget An-Ur, Dhrakoth the Corrupter, Medrinia, Mordukhavar the Reaver, Vanathor the Golden Harpist, and Xathanon, from "Spawn of Tiamat, Children of Bahamut" in Dragon #260.

The Dragon of Shades is described, but not statted, in 2E's College of Wizardry.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Thanks for the link!

Has anyone used the Children? I've read the article but forgot about them because they just didn't seem to have a lot of personality to me. Now that's a personal thing as I've taken the Ebon Maw from another issue of Dragon and ran a whole campiang about it but them? Didn't do it for me.

And the Shade Dragon was more like a symbol of power than an actual creature in the book but in 3.5, I'm sure it could be statted up, but it's be like the Dragons from the Monsternomicon. So powerful that it would be post epic characters fighting it.

 

[the Jester]

However... the big old however, 20th level was the standard back then too and there was an optional book to handle higher level advancement.

In the D&D ENcylopedia, it's another story at the default was 36th level.

I dunno... I always felt that 'name' level, when advancement really slowed down, was where the pcs had achieved 'epic' status and were eligible for the demon princes and Tiamat as bad guys. That's where a lot of the rules fundamentally changed- you stopped getting HD, your xp advancement stabilized (in most cases), etc.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I dunno... I always felt that 'name' level, when advancement really slowed down, was where the pcs had achieved 'epic' status and were eligible for the demon princes and Tiamat as bad guys. That's where a lot of the rules fundamentally changed- you stopped getting HD, your xp advancement stabilized (in most cases), etc.

I agree with you. It wasn't the end of the game by any means though. PC's still needed those extra hit points when fighting big boys. I could be remembering wrong, but Ed gave dragons those extra growth levels even in 1st edition and I believe that the breath weapon did damage based on the dragon's hit points! Dangerous stuff there.

In some ways, I miss those 'names' per level. They made things interesting, "Koran the Warlord and Lethis the Hero..." Goffy stuff. Too bad most (if not all) have been snagged into core classes or prestige classes...

 

[Helspar]

Frostbane is the dragon of winter that is sort of a creature of myth from the creationist portion of my world's history. He sleeps year round and it is the shadow of his wings that clouds the sky, his breath ice and snow and his rage the avalanche. Unbeknownst to the players (but knownst to me the DM) he really exists as an entity in the world. While he might appear as an ancient white wyrm, he really is Mr. No-stat. One of the pieces of the world who gets whatever powers I deem necessary. If the PCs were allowed ever to hunt and kill him it would take a lot of the mystique from the world.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

A few from my homebrew. The ourobourian wyrm and sea serpent are creations of mine (note that the sea serpent predates the FF sea wyrm, and is based more on the thuong-luong from JDaHG):

• Abraxas (ourobourian wyrm). First of the dragons, child of the god of knowledge
• Kung Lung (tun mi lung). A typhoon dragon who started demanding tribute and offerings meant for the god Lei Kung. He was later pulled into Ravenloft and cursed to remain in human form forever.
• Morgawr, the Brine King. A really, really ancient sea serpent (not really a dragon, but close), who destroyed the entire armada of an empire and in his youth, nearly killed one of the gods. Morgawr is one of those who's out of the realm of statistics.
• Sammael (fang dragon). He was originally born from a more-or-less random encounter with a revenant.
• Vouivre (gold dragon). Physically, he's a gold dragon, though he's treated as a red in way of powers, etc. Vouivre was the first dragon to succumb to greed, and so is the father of all the evil chromatics.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

One unique dragon is the last known surviving aquatic dragon on Tellene, named Paqurir Xastrasx. He's detailed in Dangerous Denizens: the Monsters of Tellene.